Page 194 of A Dance of Water

A flash of his mouth against her breast, hands on her waist. Lips on her lips, her neck, her jaw, her cheeks.

I remember the taste of your flesh in my mouth. I ache for the day I can taste you again. More, deeper, better. Lower.

Her breaths stuttered out of her chest.

"Do not tell me you don’t lie awake at night, staring up at the ceiling as you wonder and your hands wander," Bastian said.

"I-I…"

Shehadwondered, but had never allowed her hands to wander, afraid that it was wrong.

He pulled his hand away from the sheet, and she let hers fall back onto her lap.

"Do you know what spots best please a female?"

The suddenness of his question made her splutter. "W-why is—why is that pertinent?"

"Answer the question, Luella." The letters of her name rolled off his tongue.

"No?" she said; she asked.

"You don’t sound so sure. Remember our kiss, pet. How it felt. My hands on you. My lips on you."

She remembered, oh, how she remembered. She could never forget.

"Was that not pleasing to you?" the vampire questioned.

Through the white of the sheet, she watched as Bastian’s fingers drummed over his thighs; her fingers copied the motion, tapping along her skirts, a flutter that mimicked her heart.

Luella exhaled, unable to speak—knowing ithadbeen pleasing to her. He was inside her mind, he heard her thoughts. That was why he said:

"I want you to try to repeat what I did to you. Touch your breasts."

She gasped.

"Follow after me," Bastian murmured. "Watch what I do." He tilted his body at an angle, allowing her to follow the shape of his hands as he traced over his neck and along his chest.

She was frozen. But cracks were forming in the ice encasing her.

Luella’s teeth dug into her bottom lip. He couldn’t see her, not truly, just the impression of her. Perhaps the anonymity was why she obeyed. Or maybe it was curiosity, held back from temptations for so long, that she was begging for any crumbs she might be thrown, willing to chase after the forbidden.

She found her hands lifting to her chest, cupping the hollow of her throat. Felt herself swallow. Flowed down, fingertips tickling the swell of her breasts, grazing the delicate chain of Tharen’s amulet; she could not feel her Binding mark, but she knew it was there.

"Good, pet," he praised.

The pitter-patter of rain shifted from a lazy, misty drizzle to a soft and steady fall, shifting with her roiling emotions.

Take your breast in your hand. Feel yourself. Yoursoftness.

The words were said in the privacy of her mind, but she trembled nonetheless from the utter lasciviousness.

Slowly, so slowly, Luella’s hand drifted from where it rested over the chain of her amulet and settled over her breasts. Her palm brushed over her nipple, and even through her gown, it was all she could focus on. She bit down on her bottom lip so hard she was afraid she’d make herself bleed.

Don’t tempt me,Bastian whispered.

What would you do,she thought,if I did bleed?

The sheet fluttered. The shape of his silhouette blotted out everything else as he drew closer to the only thing keeping them separated. Her hand flexed on her breast; she resisted the urge to pull away from him.

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